Area ski resorts excited about openers (videos)

Hunter Mountain's trails were up and running on Saturday. Freeman photo by Tania Barricklo

KINGSTON, N.Y. -- As the calendar turned to December and local temperatures dropped below freezing, the three largest ski centers in the area officially opened for business.

After a flurry of snowmaking nights, Greene County's Windham Mountain and Hunter Mountain, and Belleayre Mountain in Ulster County, all threw open their doors and welcomed snowsports enthusiasts this weekend.

In fact, Windham actually got a jump on the other two mountains, sending its lifts in motion on Thursday. Hunter and Belleayre got underway on Saturday.

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The lack of natural snow last winter created some difficulties for ski areas and operators are hoping for more from Mother Nature this year.

"We've continued to refine the snowmaking process for the coming winter, making changes that will make more snow in a shorter period of time with less waste. We've moved 25 snow guns and installed 18 new valves to maximize efficiency.

"The resort is able to cover the equivalent of 37 football fields in two days."

Trista Chiarulli, marketing and communications manager at Hunter, said the mountain was ready and able to handle all who showed up over the weekend.

"All signs are pointing to a completely different winter than last season," Chiarulli said. "It would have been nice to have natural snow, but we only need weather cold enough to get our slopes covered in white. We are optimistic for a better season in terms of natural snow.

"We have 100 percent top-to-bottom snowmaking and we can resurface up to 50 percent of our mountain in one single night."

At Belleayre, now being operated by the state's Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), the installation of new piping and snow guns should make a difference this ski season.

"We've installed 3,000 new feet of snowmaking pipe and are adding 40 snow guns to our arsenal," said Jonathan King, a member of Belleayre's marketing department.

"These snow guns are state-of-the-art energy efficient machines that will reduce our snowmaking costs while increasing capacity, and we have two new Pisten Bully machines to increase grooming.

"Our staff worked diligently to complete the snowmaking line projects and by keeping the work in-house, we kept costs affordable and got the job done as quickly as possible."

Belleayre is the one center that has seen the most change as it moved from being operated by the Department of Conservation to the ORDA, which also oversees Whiteface Mountain, Gore Mountain and the Olympic Jumping and Sports Complex in Lake Placid.

"In addition to the improvements in snowmaking, we also are installing barcode scanners at the base of our lifts so that season-pass holders to ski go directly on the lifts without having to get a ticket," King said. "We have WiFi in the Discovery and Overlook lodges and new non-slip proof rubber flooring in the lodges, too."

Upgrades at Windham this year include Young Adult tickets for 13-17 year olds, a new shuttle bus, expanded seating in the 3500 Club, new equipment rentals and new bathroom floors.

"Guests can book lodging, lessons and child care with one phone call," Barry said. "There's more space and better flow in the main eatery. We'll be able to better serve our guests year round."

Hunter has added two new gladed trails, a high-speed detachable quad lift, and improved its eSki online store.

"If a guest is flexible on arrival date, they can maximize savings by seeing a calendar displaying the lift ticket rate on each day," Chiarulli said. "You can choose the date with the lowest rate and coordinate the trip to minimize spending."

With the economy in the doldrums, the three centers made minimal price adjustments this season.

"We looked closely at our pricing models and decided it was important not to increase pricing on our season passes, Big Lift Card and 3X Card products," Chiarulli said.

"Windham has decided to offer our services at the same prices as 2011-12," Barry said. "We feel our guests will appreciate this on the heels of a difficult winter season."

"There were some slight adjustments in some pricing, but we are excited to introduce Kids 6-and-under ski free to attract families," King said. "We're also introducing the Tiger Den drop off center for parents of younger children."

No ski season would be worthwhile without additional amenities and special events.

The three mountains have done their best to provide a complete resort experience and offer unique opportunities this year.

"One of our top amenities at Belleayre is our Snow Guarantee," King said. "If you find snow conditions not to your satisfaction, you've got one hour from the time your lift ticket was issued to take a run, return to Guest Services and receive a voucher for another day on us during the season.

"Our food service is going to be greatly enhanced and we have events like Winter Festival Week (Jan. 28-Feb. 1) with $30 lift tickets and a lot more on our calendar."

"Our snowtubing park at Hunter is a great way to have lots of fun," Chiarulli said. "Our ziplines are available year-round, our Empire Terrain Park is great for jumps and freestyle skiers and the Kaatskill Mountain Club hotel has a four-season pool, spa and great restaurant.

"For events, we have our Holiday Season Torchlight Parade and fireworks, the annual FDNY and East Coast Firefighter/Police Games and Hell Track with a number of different rail jams and events."

"Windham has the Mountain Top Adventure Park with snowtubing, ziplines, kids snowmobiles and ice skating," Barry said. "There's also cross country skiing and snowshoeing. Our base area has North America's first Big Air Bag for guests to practice high-flying aerials with a soft landing, along with a Euro Bungy with trampoline for younger guests.

"Some of our special events are Ski and Ride with Santa, Big Air Bag Throwdown, U.S. Ski Team day and the Parrothead Spring Fling Festival."

Despite the financial woes caused by the country's economy and last winter's conditions, representatives of all three mountains were optimistic about the future.

"The ski industry has made great gains over the last decade and skiers have been consistent despite the climate of the economy," Barry said. "Skiers and riders are passionate about the sport and their enthusiasm has been extraordinary."

"We're working to operate as efficiently as possible to create a better customer experience," King said. "We don't want to sacrifice the snow quality that people have grown accustomed to at Belleayre."

"The industry as a whole definitely took a hit last winter, but everyone is excited for this season," Chiarulli said. "I feel like people never got a chance to get it out of their systems last year, so they are especially excited to hits the slopes this year."